The present invention relates to a compressor.
In a known compressor (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-117867), a valve plate is arranged between a discharge chamber and a compression chamber. A discharge port, which extends through the valve plate, can communicate the discharge chamber and the compression chamber. A discharge reed valve, which is located in the discharge chamber, opens and closes the discharge port.
The discharge reed valve is elastically deformable and formed by a plate material of which the front surface and the rear surface are parallel in a normal state. The discharge reed valve includes a fixed portion, which is fixed to the valve plate, a base portion, which extends in a longitudinal direction from the fixed portion and can be lifted from the valve plate, and a valve portion, which extends in the longitudinal direction toward a distal side from the base portion to open and close the discharge port.
The valve plate has a fixing surface that faces the discharge chamber. The fixed portion of the discharge reed valve is fixed to the fixing surface in a state in which the rear surface of the fixing portion is in contact with the fixed portion. The valve plate includes an annular seal surface and an annular recessed groove. The seal surface is flush with the fixing surface, surrounds the discharge port, and can come into contact with the rear surface of the valve portion. The recessed groove is located at the outer side of the seal surface to surround the entire circumference of the discharge port and arranged from the fixing surface.
In this type of compressor, if the deformation (lift) of the discharge reed valve during discharge is small, gas does not smoothly flow out from between the reed valve and the valve plate. This produces a resistance that results in power loss.
To reduce energy consumption, it is desirable that power loss be decreased in the compressor of the prior art described above.
Further, in the compressor described above, the discharge reed valve may be damaged. It is thus desirable that the durability be improved.